“The Tour de France is the world's greatest cycling race. Each year it is passionately followed by fans around the world so it has naturally given rise to L'Étape by Tour de France”, said Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director. The series has now expanded to multiple international locations including China, Thailand, Mexico, Brasil and Australia.
Among L’Étape Series, L'Étape du Tour de France is defined as the Queen stage, our flagship, the sportive in each riders’ bucket list. With a peloton of 15 000 riders and 50 nationalities, it is Europe's biggest cycling event. Riding on the same routes and under the same conditions as Tour de France champions: this is the promise that, L'Étape du Tour de France has kept since 1993.
The only cycling event in the world allowing to race and feel like a Tour de France champion.
And so it was that, on 1 July 1903, sixty pioneers set out on their bicycles from Montgeron. After six mammoth stages (Nantes - Paris, 471 km!), only 21 “routiers”, led by Maurice Garin, arrived at the end of this first epic. After having completed the event circuit at an average speed of 25 km/h, Maurice Garin was rewarded with prize money of 6,075 francs, a handsome purse for the era. But most importantly, he was the first in a long line of champions.
Having already tackled the Ballon d’Alsace (1905), the peloton now got to grips with the summits of the Pyrenees. The following year, the race journeyed up into the Alps to take the Col du Galibier mountain pass.
The first Yellow Jersey, indicating the leader in the general classification, was issued to Eugène Christophe in Grenoble. The choice of colour evoked the paper on which L’Auto magazine was printed.
In an era when the Davis Cup was dominated by the famous Mousquetaires of French tennis, the peloton was also stirring up plenty of patriotic sentiment. André Leducq was the overall winner of Le Tour and Charles Pélissier triumphed over eight stages. This was also the year that the publicity caravan was created.
For this experiment, three finishes at altitude were planned: Alpe d'Huez, Sestrières, and Puy-de-Dôme. Italy's Fausto Coppi crossed all three finish lines in front to claim his second Tour de France crown.
He will later be joined in this exclusive club of five-time winners of Le Tour by: - Eddy Merckx, known as “The Cannibal” (fifth victory in 1974). He is also the only rider to have won all the separate classifications of le Tour - Bernard Hinault (fifth victory in 1985). He is still the last Frenchman to triumph in the event. - Miguel Indurain (fifth victory in 1995). He became the first rider to win Le Tour five times in a row.
He will later be joined in this exclusive club of five-time winners of Le Tour by: - Eddy Merckx, known as “The Cannibal” (fifth victory in 1974). He is also the only rider to have won all the separate classifications of le Tour - Bernard Hinault (fifth victory in 1985). He is still the last Frenchman to triumph in the event. - Miguel Indurain (fifth victory in 1995). He became the first rider to win Le Tour five times in a row.